LESSON 16 TEACHER’S GUIDE
Monsoons of India
by Ellen Persio
Fountas-Pinnell Level W
Informational Text
Selection Summary
Depending on a monsoons’ direction, the warm winds can bring
flood or drought. Monsoons are integral to India yesterday and today.
Some worry the southwest monsoon may be drying up. Scientists
continue their studies, but only time will tell.
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
Number of Words: 2,070
• Informational text
• Seven brief chapters of third-person narrative, some divided by subheadings
• Text insets provide ancillary information
• Details help the reader compare and contrast text information.
• Monsoons and India’s climate
• Scientific information about monsoons: causes, effects, future behavior
• Ecological concerns (deforestation, climate change)
• Nature is unpredictable.
• People and the environment are interdependent.
• People modify their environment for their needs.
• Conversational language: Welcome to Cherrapunji, India….
• Question-answer format helps the reader understand cause and effect
• Anthropomorphized monsoons
• Short, declarative sentences interspersed with rhetorical questions and exclamations
• Numerous appositives
• Parenthetical references and pronunciation guides
• Many science terms, some of which might not be familiar to English language learners,
such as monsoons, sediment, plateau, current, drought, deforestation. Cultural references
such as monsoon festivals. (p. 9)
• Multisyllable target vocabulary: ancestral, destiny, embodied, majestic, recreational
• Color photos, graph, diagram, and maps
• Sixteen pages of text
• Glossary, table of contents, sidebars
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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Monsoons of India
by Ellen Persio
Build Background
Help students use their knowledge of weather and storms to visualize the selection. Build
interest by asking a question such as the following: What do you know about monsoons or
the heavy rains in India? Read the title and author and talk about the cover illustration. Tell
students that this selection is informational text, and will give facts and examples about a topic.
Frontload Vocabulary
Some everyday words may be unfamiliar to English learners. Before reading, check
understanding of the following words: record, experience, transfers, breeze, opposite,
civilization, irrigation, plumbing, disappeared, predict, forecast, stable.
Introduce the Text
Guide students through the text, reading the captions, noting important ideas, and helping
with unfamiliar language and vocabulary so they can read the text successfully. Call their
attention to any important labels. Here are some suggestions:
Page 5: Explain that this selection is about strong winds, called monsoons,
which bring rains to India in summer and dry periods in winter. Read the caption.
Suggested language: What effect do you think monsoons have on farmers? What
is a community’s destiny if their farmers are not able to grow their crops?
Page 9: Read the text feature. Indians sing ancestral songs because their families
have dealt with monsoons for centuries. How important do you think monsoons
are to the Indian culture?
Pages 12–13: Show the picture on page 13. Explain that scientists have unearthed
evidence that India’s Harappan culture prospered near a river for 800 years and
then disappeared. Ask: What sorts of things might have been unearthed?
Page 14–15: Read the chapter heading. Ask: What could be both good and bad
about monsoons? Read the title of the poem and the introduction. Read the fifth
line. Cultural support: What does peace mean? What is another word that sounds
the same but has an entirely different meaning?
Now turn back to the beginning of the selection and read to find out what role
monsoons play in India—friend or enemy.
Target Vocabulary
ancestral – having to do with
long-ago family members, p. 9
forge – build or create, p. 5
ruthless – cruel, without pity or
compassion for others, p. 3
artistry – artistic ability or quality,
p. 12
majestic – impressive with
grandeur and beauty, p. 3
sagas – long stories, often about
heroes, p. 5
destiny – what is expected to
happen in the future, p. 5
recreational – done for relaxation
and amusement, p. 12
unearthed – dug up from the
ground, p. 12
physical way, p. 9
embodied – represented in a
Grade 6
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Read
Have students read silently while you listen to individual students read aloud. Support their
understanding of the text as needed.
Remind students to use the Summarize Strategy
important parts of the text in their own words.
and to tell the
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite students to share their personal responses to the selection.
Suggested language: What did you learn about monsoons that you didn’t know before
reading the text?
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help students understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• Monsoons affect India’s weather
and its ultimate destiny.
• Natural events, such as
monsoons, affect people,
animals, and the environment.
• The questions in the book help
the reader focus and look for the
answer.
• Human actions can increase the
destructive effects of nature.
• The glossary explains terms that
are most likely unfamiliar to the
reader.
• Although monsoons affect
farmers first, eventually all
people in India feel the effects of
flooding and drought.
• Deforestation increases the
destructive effects of monsoons;
some people believe India’s
southwest monsoon is
drying up.
• People are often dependent on
nature.
• The author gives examples to
help the reader understand how
monsoons can be both friend
and enemy.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Invite students to choose a passage from the text to use for a readers’
theater. Remind them to pay attention to punctuation, and to stress certain words to
sound as if the narrator were actually speaking.
• Comprehension Based on your observations of the students’ reading and discussion,
revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind students to go
back to the text to support their ideas.
• Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using
examples from the text. Remind students that some word families consist of words
that share a common root. For example, the word ancestral (associated with family
members) on page 9 is an adjective. It shares a common root with the nouns ancestor
“one from whom a person descended, generally a relative more distant than a
grandparent” and ancestry “a line of descent.”
Grade 6
3
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have students complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 16.10.
Responding
Have students complete the activities at the back of the book, using their Reader’s
Notebook. Use the instruction below as needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the
comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension Skill
Compare and Contrast
Remind students that, when they compare and
contrast, they can see how two or more details or ideas in the book are alike and different.
Model how to add details to the Graphic Organizer, using a “Think Aloud” like the one
below:
Think Aloud
The narrator says that the summer monsoon blows from the north
and south and brings heavy rains to most of India. During the winter
monsoon, winds blow from the northeast and dump rain on only
southern India, while the rest of India stays dry. List these details to
compare and contrast summer and winter monsoons.
Practice the Skill
Have students share an example of another story in which they used details in the story to
compare and contrast characters, settings, or events.
Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the Text
Have students write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they
think beyond the text, they use their personal knowledge to reach new understandings.
Assessment Prompts
• What is this selection mainly about?
• What are two sentences on page 4 that support the idea that monsoons greatly affect
life in India?
• What is the meaning of forge on page 5?
Grade 6
4
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English Language Development
Reading Support Make sure the text matches the students’ reading level. Language
and content should be accessible with regular teaching support.
Cognates The text includes many English-Spanish cognates. Explain that the English
word destiny (page 5) is destino in Spanish. Saga (page 5) is the same in both languages
while the Spanish counterpart of forge (page 5) is forjar.
Oral Language Development
Check student comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches your students’
English proficiency. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the student.
Beginning/Early Intermediate
Intermediate
Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: What are monsoons?
Speaker 1: Why does Cherrapunji
receive record rainfalls?
Speaker 1: Why are monsoons
difficult to manage?
Speaker 2: The mountains near
Cherrapunji cause a huge buildup of
rain clouds.
Speaker 2: Monsoons are difficult
to manage because forecasting
is expensive and often unreliable.
Even a tiny change can affect
the whole system. Managing
monsoons requires constant
work to keep a stable water
supply, prevent floods, and bring
water to dry areas.
Speaker 2: winds that reverse direction
in summer and winter
Speaker 1: What kind of weather
occurs in India during the summer?
Speaker 2: heavy rains
Speaker 1: What kind of weather
occurs in September?
Speaker 1: What causes a monsoon?
Speaker 2: Monsoons start when
temperatures on land and on waters
differ.
Speaker 2: dry period
Lesson 16
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 16.10
Date
Critical Thinking
Monsoons of India
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions. Possible responses shown.
1. Think within the text What would happen to India’s farmlands if
there were no monsoons?
They might become deserts due to a lack of rain.
2. Think within the text What is deforestation?
Deforestation is the destroying of trees to make more farmland.
3. Think beyond the text Scientists disagree about how the Harappan
civilization in India ended after 800 years. These types of
disagreements happen occasionally. Why do you think scientists
can’t decide on a theory?
They don’t have enough information to figure out what really
happened.
4. Think about the text Is the weather in India more violent or extreme
than weather in the United States? Explain your answer.
Weather in both India and the United States can be very violent.
In India, monsoons can do terrible damage. The United States has
hurricanes and tornadoes that can cause major damage as well.
Making Connections If you lived in a part of the world that had a monsoon
season, how would your life be different? Think of at least three things that
would be different about your life during monsoon season.
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Critical Thinking
12
Grade 6, Unit 4: Treasures of the Ancient World
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5
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Name
Date
Monsoons of India
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in one or two
paragraphs.
Remember that when you think beyond the text, you use your personal
knowledge to reach new understandings.
On page 5, the author says: “In India, monsoons are a matter of life and
death.” If you lived in India, do you think you would agree with the author?
Why? How would you feel about living with India’s monsoons? Explain your
answer, giving examples from the selection.
Grade 6
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Lesson 16
Name
Date
Critical Thinking
BLACKLINE MASTER 16.10
Monsoons of India
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions.
1. Think within the text What would happen to India’s farmlands if
there were no monsoons?
2. Think within the text What is deforestation?
3. Think beyond the text Scientists disagree about how the
Harappan civilization in India ended after 800 years. These types of
disagreements happen occasionally. Why do you think scientists can’t
decide on a theory?
4. Think about the text Is the weather in India more violent or extreme
than weather in the United States? Explain your answer.
Making Connections If you lived in a part of the world that had a monsoon
season, how would your life be different? Think of at least three things that
would be different about your life during monsoon season.
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 6
7
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Student
Lesson 16
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 16.14
Monsoons of India • LEVEL W
page
14
Monsoons of India
Running Record Form
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
Monsoons have affected people in India for a long time. They
think about the monsoons a lot. They have strong feelings
about them, too. People see the mighty monsoons as a sign of
hope. But they also know monsoons can cause trouble.
The summer monsoon can bring good times or hard times.
India’s farmers depend on monsoon rains. But these rains may
come too late or fall too lightly. Crops may not grow.
Sometimes, the rains fall too hard and wash away young
plants. If the wet weather lasts too long, crops go bad.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/94 × 100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 6
Behavior
Error
0
0
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
cat
Error
1414487
Behavior
ˆ
Word told
1
8
T
cat
1
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